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Poster: light into ashes Date: Jun 29, 2010 1:36am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: 5-15-70 guitar question

In the early part of 1970 Jerry was playing a Strat - I think the last pictures I've seen with it are from the Fillmore West, April '70. By the 4/26/70 show, he's playing the Gibson SG, I believe, and that's what he uses through the May tour (and the rest of the year).

But looking at a picture of the acoustic set from 5/15/70 (in the new Road Trips), I notice there's a Strat propped up right behind Jerry - presumably to pick up once they get to Cumberland & New Speedway.

Now, it could be one of the New Riders' guitars, left out early for their set. But I'm wondering whether Jerry used a Strat for the acoustic/electric numbers, when he was playing the SG in the electric sets? One reason he went to the Strat in the first place was for its country-twang sound. Presumably there's a photo somewhere to confirm....

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Poster: dead-head_Monte Date: Jun 29, 2010 10:01am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: 5-15-70 guitar question

The photo archives at www.Dead.net, operated by Rhino Records, are the only tool I use to chronologically place specific Dead pics with an exact date and place. All of the file names in this collection of 937 pics are time-stamped names. Each pic is named by its calendar date. This pic collection circulates in a bit torrent at Lossless Legs. That's where I d/l mine. I zipped them up into a single 260MB archive file. I do not have the new Road Trips. We have one existing photo from the Rhino pic collection which is time-stamped 15-May-1970. It's a pic of Jer backstage at the Fillmore East. We've seen this pic before. If you can find some other pics of Jer, with him dressed and shaved like this, you're probably on the right track. That's my recommendation.

15-May-1970
19700515_0432.jpg

snapshot of the filenames listed in this era - JPGs in Rhino collection
dead-head_Monte-Dead_Photos_snapshot.jpg

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Poster: Street Pig ! Date: Jun 29, 2010 3:43am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: 5-15-70 guitar question

Here are some pix of that era

Attachment: 1970b.jpg
Attachment: 1970_jerysidehollywood.jpg
Attachment: 1970c.jpeg

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Poster: light into ashes Date: Jun 29, 2010 7:03pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: 5-15-70 guitar question

That third picture was in the Tapers Compendium listed as 8-15-71...

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Poster: light into ashes Date: Jun 29, 2010 6:57pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: 5-15-70 guitar question

Thanks for the responses, though the mystery remains unsolved... I just haven't found a photo or discussion of WHICH electric guitar Jerry was playing in the acoustic sets - and it never occurred to me til I saw that photo. Usually Jerry, as far as I know, was a one-guitar-per-show guy....

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Poster: Jim F Date: Jun 30, 2010 2:10am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: 5-15-70 guitar question

That is an interesting question...just last week I was reading some about Bob and Jerry's guitars, and was re-reading that old link for Jerry's guitars that somebody posted a couple posts above.

I don't have the Road Trips and have not seen the picture, but what does the Strat look like? Was it the 1963 Sunburst Strat with the American Flag sticker on it? There are pictures of him using it in 1970.

But your main point definitely brings up something odd. Jerry generally always was a one-guitar per gig kinda guy, aside from technical malfunctions or the occasions mentioned on that page about his guitars and him using the black strat in the 90's only during space. It is pretty easy to assume he may have had a backup along just in case, but not set up onstage. If anyone ever gets to the bottom of this, it just might be the only proven example of Jerry ever using 2 different guitars purely for tonal reasons.

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Poster: light into ashes Date: Jun 30, 2010 1:22pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: 5-15-70 guitar question

It doesn't look like the Sunburst Strat with the flag, but it's hard to tell, being a small, fuzzy picture, the guitar partly obscured, in poor lighting..... But it's not David Nelson's guitar.

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Poster: RBNW....new and improved! Date: Jun 29, 2010 5:00am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: 5-15-70 guitar question

http://www.dozin.com/jers/guitar/history.htm

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Poster: Dudley Dead Date: Jun 29, 2010 9:17am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: 5-15-70 guitar question

That was a very interesting article . It might be also interesting for someone to speculate what Garcia liked/disliked about a particular guitar, and its sound .
One of the reasons the older songs sometimes don't sound "right" in later incarnations, has to do with the equipment changes, and obviously Jerry's guitars .